


a day in their life (sunshine on christmas)

by domniall



Series: Ficmas 2017 [4]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alcohol, Dogs, Ficmas, Fluff and more fluff, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, a day in the life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 02:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13066908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/domniall/pseuds/domniall
Summary: “It’s around 9:30 a.m. on December 7th and I’m feeling very festive.” With a grin, Phil shifts to show the mini Christmas tree sitting on the table next to his bed. “Sadly, this is the only tree we have up as of now.”





	a day in their life (sunshine on christmas)

**Author's Note:**

> @dan and @phil u owe me one
> 
> this is for everybody who asked for a new festive ditl but phil choked our dreams out real quick in his last live show. i've had this idea for a while and i'm so glad i got to write it down. i hope you all love it and enjoy it as much as the real day in the life and as much as i enjoyed writing it and thinking about how phil would think about recording his entire life.

Phil ruffled his hair in the front camera of his phone, yawning out loudly. His jaw ached a bit after that, hearing bones crack in his head from the movement after waking up from a deeper sleep. 

“I heard that.” Dan said, tugging a random pair of Phil’s joggers on. He glanced at himself in the mirror, flipping his hair around as Phil did moments ago. 

“Shoo.” Phil mumbled before reaching up to fix his phone in landscape mode. Dan was still there, picking up his discarded clothes from last night as Phil opened his camera app. 

Glasses on, hair intact. He sat up a little bit, his mum would heckle him for slouching so much. Record. 

Eyes bright, blinking himself awake. 

“Hey guys!” As soon as Phil closed his mouth, it opened again with a big yawn. “Oh my god, I can’t stop yawning! Good morning!” He smiled at himself in the screen. 

“It’s around 9:30 a.m. onnnnn.. wait what day is it?” He pressed the home button and scrolled to the calendar. With the camera back open, he smiled. 

“It’s around 9:30 a.m. on December 7th and I’m feeling very festive.” With a grin, he shifts to show the mini Christmas tree sitting on the table next to his bed. “Sadly, this is the only tree we have up as of now.” 

Pause. He takes a breath. “Sadly, this is the only tree I have up as of now.” 

Camera back to him. “So, what better way to get festive other than to go out and buy decorations and a tree! Yaaaaay!” He brings his other hand in shot—a fist—and wiggles a little. 

He makes a mental note to add in the kids screaming yaaaaay for effect. He presses the stop button in the app and saves the video before dropping his phone. Dan’s standing there, hand on his hip with a smirk on his lips. 

“You’re such a dork.” He says finally. Phil’s lips part. “Hey! I thought you were supposed to be making pancakes.” Reaching out, Phil grabs for a pillow he can reach and flings it across the room towards Dan. It hits at his side and falls to the ground with him laughing. 

“I’m going! I’m going!” With his clothes crumpled in his arms, Dan gets out of the door and Phil listens for the noise the steps make as he walks up the steps to the next floor. 

Phil smiles and finally pushes himself out of bed, stretching out. He stretches a the edge of his bed before reaching for his phone again and standing up. 

He turns it to front camera before pressing record. As he steps, he comes to his dresser that has a few packages on top of it. 

“Oooh, I wonder what these are.” He says, shaking two Amazon boxes he got yesterday. Things rattle inside and behind the camera, his eyebrows raise a little. 

“Let’s find out!” He sets the phone down after getting he shot and tears the tape off before opening the first box. Digging through the packing plastic, he pulls out the two baggies of dried crickets and worms. He can’t help but shudder as he holds them only to toss them back into the box. Also, inside, was a giant candy hamburger that looked too real. 

Grabbing his phone again, he reaches in to pick up the burger as he shows them off. “I won’t spoil it here, but you will see these on DanandPhilGames for Gaaaaamingmaaaas.” He says in the booming voice he always seems to bring out for Gamingmas and a good old Dan v. Phil. 

Stopping the video, he heads upstairs to the lovely smell of pancakes wafting through the living room and it leads him straight to the kitchen. Dan’s there, hip against the middle island while he flips a lightly golden pancake on the skillet. 

“You actually made pancakes? Are you really Dan Howell?” Phil asked as he walked over, his hands coming to touch on the island as he stands across from Dan. Dan rolls his eyes and flips another cake on the skillet. 

“I was feeling them anyways. Plus, I have to show people I eat actual food.” He says while his hand motions towards Phil’s waist. Oh yeah. 

Phil grins as he again, reaches for his phone to start recording. With his tongue sticking out through his teeth in his grin, Dan sighs out. “Oh no.” 

“Guess who’s awake!” Phil says cheerfully as he zooms in and out of Dan’s face that he tries to hide with his hands. He holds it out in front of him but Phil reaches to swat it away. “Dan’s awaaaake! And he’s making pancakes! Oh!” 

Phil pans down to the delicious breakfast choice and zooms in. “Get in my stomach!” He says while focusing on them. Zooming out, he goes back to Dan. 

“So, Dan, why don’t you tell those who don’t know about why we need to buy a new tree?” 

Phil was still grinning and Dan glared at him from across the island while his fingers flicked the stove top off. “Why don’t we wait until after we’re done? I’m starving.” 

“You’re absolutely right.” Phil says, tapping the stop button again. He’s reaching for a plate and going for the freshly made pancakes. 

“Good thing I’m the one who is always making decisions, huh?” Dan says, walking past Phil for his own plate, sneaking a quick kiss to his cheek. 

Phil side eyes him playfully but ignores the comment as his stomach screams for the deliciousness in front of him. 

\--

They down the pancakes quick, barely talking, as they have to film a lot today for a good 15-minute video. Phil gets the kettle going and cleans the dishes Dan made him do while Dan reads emails quietly at the table, coexisting peacefully. 

The kettle whistles and Phil hums contently when he gets to finally have a coffee, grabbing the instant mix that Dan likes a tiny bit better than the other one. Dan still hates it, but he prefers this one, so Phil’s mixing them and dropping sugar in, an extra one for Dan. 

He delivers his mug to the table next to him and sits down, drinking almost immediately. The warm drink makes him feel a tad bit more festive, even if it is just coffee. It reminds him of hot chocolate and cookies on Christmas Eve when him and Martyn would sit down to watch silly American Christmas movies. They’d watch until they both had to sleep, around 9, because Santa had to make his stop, and wouldn’t fall asleep until nearly midnight with limbs too excited and giggling under the covers. Who knew a lot of sugar before bed wasn’t the best? 

Still, looking down into the dark mug, he smiles. Those memories with Martyn and being a child mean the world to him, but so do the memories he’s making now. He can still see clear as day the first time him and Dan decorated the tree for the first time, mostly because they filmed it. 

Though, he still remembers the soft cheek kisses they gave after and warm, cozy hugs and tight cuddles. 

He’s lucky it’s his job to film everything, because he could never imagine forgetting the times like these. Holidays, trips, and experiences they have together. All stored for them to look back to 30 years from now. That warms him more than any drink could just thinking about it. 

Phil finishes coffee easily before Dan starts his. The steam stopped at least five minutes ago and Dan’s fingers continued to tap along to the keys. 

“Daaan, c’mon. We need to film this one bit and gooooo.” Phil was now standing and he moves behind Dan, shaking his chair a little. Over Dan’s shoulder, he can see he’s currently writing to Marianne. 

“Phil, remember, decision making!” His head tilts back with his chin pointing up towars the sky so he can look at Phil upside down. From Dan’s view, it looks like Phil’s smiling. 

“Dan, remember, video filming!” He says while his head drops lower, their noses touching. They boop them together again and grin before sharing a soft kiss, one that Dan can taste the hint of coffee on Phil. 

“Mm, oh yeah, coffee.” Dan says when he tastes it and he looks back down to his computer, his hands cupping his own mug and taking a long gulp. 

Phil sighs as he watches Dan drink down half his mug and finishes the email he drafted and licks a quick send. “Alright, film and then showers and then we’re leaving.” 

Phil nods and goes for his phone. 

Back at the same spot, Phil comes to stand across the island. “So, Dan, why don’t you tell those who don’t know why we need to buy a tree?” Phil’s grinning as Dan automatically puts his hands on his hips. 

“Alright, so, we moved, right? New apartment, new space. We brought a lot of stuff. We even brought the extender from our old dining table that we could probably be fined for if the landlord ever figures that out, but we also left a lot of things.” Dan’s hand comes up and gives knowing look to the lense. “When you move, you can leave things. We left a few things. However, there was one thing we didn’t mean to leave.” 

Dan goes to speak but Phil’s whipping the phone around at him. “WE FORGOT THE RAVE TREE!!!” Phil whines out and Dan is laughing in the background. 

“We forgot it in the storage cupboard. We got out of there as soon as we could and ran as far away as possible and we sadly left our rave tree there.” Dan said when the phone was back on him. 

He frowns before waiting a few seconds and clapping, signaling they could cut there. “Cue in like a RIP Rave tree graphic. 2010 to 2017.” 

“You can do that, Mr. Premiere master.” Phil said, stopping the video. “I call first shower!” 

“I made you bloody pancakes!” Dan screamed out as Phil out of the kitchen, Dan quickly following behind him. 

\--

Dressed in his beetle sweater and some lack jeans as normal, and in the bathroom after straightening his hair, he started filming again. “Dressed and ready for out festive quest, but sadly, the Christmas jumpers are dirty…” 

He pans down and around to the pile of clothes sitting in front of the washer behind him in the bathroom. His toe pokes at the jumpers in the heap of clothes waiting to be washed. 

“We had them stored in a box and I think Dan didn’t close it all the way from when we moved, because it smelled really bad in there.” His phone went back to his face. “So, blame Dan that we aren’t festive and the musty dust from London.” 

He got out of the bathroom and back upstairs once he was dressed and shoed. Dan had grabbed the vlogging camera since Phil’s phone would probably die if they filmed everything on it plus the camera had better sound than Phil’s phone for outside. 

However, it didn’t stop Phil from catching one more part. “Oooooh, look at Dan’s new fancy coat.” 

Dan’s new coat looked more like a bug than it did anything else the way it fit snugly over his body. He held out his arms once it was zipped up over his chest, the top layer coming right below his nipples while the second layer went down and curved like a suit jacket with tails. 

“It’s high fashion, Phil.” Dan turns to check his hair in the mirror before patting his pockets for phone and camera. 

“Didn’t you get a new jacket in the last festive video all that time ago? Are these videos just plugs so people can see your new clothes?” Phil panned down the new coat before up back to Dan’s face. 

Dan turns and smirks. “Spon for my coats! Mwhahahaha!” He holds his hands out evily and tilts his head back only to grin as he stands back up straight, dimples sinking in. Phil gets it on his phone. He’ll edit the ending part out, but keep it in his Dan file. 

Not a weird one. It’s full of smiles and laughs that weren’t needed in videos but he wanted to keep. Dan’s probably seen it on his laptop, but never mentioned it. He updates it regularly. 

With what they were going to need for the day, they went out of the door and down to the ground level. Into the cold, they both shove hands into pockets and tug hoods over heads. They walk in sync down the sidewalk and across streets to their first stop, a shop that sells mostly kitchen utensils and kitchen stuff. 

They aren’t filming when inside, mostly grabbing things they need for themselves. Also, Phil wanted to buy his mum a new cook book for Christmas. 

Coming up the aisle, Dan has a brush for buttering or basting and when Phil is looking over books, he lightly brushes it across Phil’s cheek. At first, he doesn’t feel it, but the second time Dan does it, Phil jumps with a soft yelp. His eyes are wide towards Dan who is nearly pissing himself as he tries to stifle his laugher. 

“What are you doing? I’m trying to find a book for my mum!” Phil said hushly, reaching over to push at Dan’s arm that he used to mess with him. 

“I’m messing with you. I think we have to buy this now, though. Your weird skin particles are on it. Nobody’s gonna want it.” Dan says, tossing it into the basket he has on his free arm. 

With a fake offended face, Phil grabs a book and turns to Dan. “I think somebody would buy it and clone me.” 

“You’d be a slave to some rich guy and he’d like, tie you to the ground and make you eat old grass.” Dan says while he follows Phil while he walks towards the front where the register is. 

“At least he lets me eat grass, I get table scraps from you.” Phil glances to Dan while he hides his grin, biting at the inside of his lips. Dan narrows his eyes.   
“Go on. Go pay or you’re not eating anything tonight.” Phil giggles out quietly and takes the basket Dan had so they can pay. 

\--

When they start filming again, it’s walking down the street. Dan’s on the camera, showing off all the decorations they see as they make it through the cold. The sun shows it’s 

“I think they stepped it up, honestly. Brexit happened and they were like ‘Let’s make the city prettier so people don’t leave because of our terrible decision!’” 

He pans to Phil walking next to him and Phil nods. “I like it this year. It’s like festive-ness times 10. I probably won’t leave, so they’re working.”

Dan laughs from behind the camera. “Where are we going now, Phil?” 

They stop filming while getting through a larger crowd of people on the sidewalks as they move through, scooting past them. Once past it all, Dan’s back up in Phil’s face and he laughs. 

“We’re going to buy the Christmas tree!! Yaaaay!” He throws his hands up in the air with the bags in them and jiggles them a little. “We have to go early because they stop delivering after like 5, so we have order it and shop really quick, and be home so they don’t just throw it out in the street for us to fetch.” 

“Yeah, I don’t think the busy street in front of our place will appreciate the delivery people just chucking our tree out there. Real life Crossy Road.” Dan says before turning the camera back to himself. “Let’sa go!” 

Dan puts the camera back in his pocket before he drops it trying to doge people as they walk towards the Christmas tree place. 

“I’m so excited.” Phil says and he looks over to Dan who smiles back.   
“Me too. I’ve never had a real tree before.” Dan grins and looks forward, shoving his cold fingers into his pockets. 

Phil’s heard swells at the idea that the first time Dan’s getting a real tree is with him. Phil knows Dan’s life has had some hardships and Christmas time was a time for Dan to get things he couldn’t get regularly in the year, a time to be happy and content, so he always, always, always wants it to be a special time for Dan. 

A real tree cements something in your life. A tradition is forming. A bond is beginning. Dan will remember this day for the rest of his life, and will probably tell their kids about it one day, and even show them since it’s being recorded. 

They’ll be the parents who break out the videos on every holiday that embarrass their kids with silly home videos. They’ll grin and smile and hug each other and kiss and it will always be something Phil will never forget. 

He smiles, and keeps his eyes on Dan the rest of the walk there. 

It’s not long and Phil asks for the camera when they come to it, the little shop set up outside in between two buildings. There’s large gates that can open and close that lock in the trees, Phil supposes. 

Handing it over, Dan goes to stand in front of the gate and Phil smiles, getting a short video of him standing with his thumbs up. 

“We made it!” Dan says happily and some people give weird eyes to them, but it’s second nature to them. 

“Yuusss!” Phil says behind the camera and he gets closer, walking inside with Dan. There are dozens and dozens of trees stacked on each other and then lean against the walls of the adjacent buildings. Phil catches Dan going towards some of them, looking over the trees. Some are more bare while a lot of them are fully lush and very bright green. 

“Dan can you name a famous tree?” Phil asks as he comes up behind Dan who is looking at a tree. Dan glances back at him with a deadpan. “No.” 

“Spruce Springstean.” You can hear the grin in Phil’s voice and Dan keeps his face on the camera for at least 20 seconds. 

“We’re going home.” Dan finally says and Phil laughs out. 

They get a few more shots of the trees before a woman is coming over and asking them if they need help. They’re looking for a 7-foot tree that’s one of the delivery available ones and she helps them out, showing them which ones would be in their range. While looking through them, there’s a particular tree that’s super skinny. 

Phil was already ready to film so he pans over the trees. “Which ones should we get? I kinda like this one.” He points to a random one and Dan nods before going back to the skinnier one. 

“Phil.” Dan says and Phil pans over, camera on him. “Can you say she’s a…… skinny queen?” Dan says before showing off the tree. Phil wrinkles his nose. “Daaaan.” 

Dan laughs, though. “What?! I need to be up with the kids and their lingo.” 

They stop playing around after that, looking through the trees. When they find it, they know. They’ve only been at it for 5 minutes but they find an older looking one that’s still mostly bright green. The needles are strong, though, and even after pulling on them almost none of them fall off. Dan immediately wants it because the idea of sweeping up pine needles for weeks makes him want to say fuck the tree. 

“Are you sure?” Phil asks. “I thought it would be more magical, picking out a tree.” 

“What? Do you want the tree to sing to you? We’re not in a Disney movie, Phil.” He smiles and Phil nods. 

“I did want it to sing. They have one of those I saw on Amazon.” 

“Absolutely not.” Dan comments before he’s waving the woman over who helped them earlier. Phil quickly pans down to the tree, catching a few seconds of it. 

“We found the one! Piney!” 

Dan blinks a few times and ignores the silly name and he’s asking the woman where they should go next. Turns out both of them have to help carry it over to the weighing and bagging area so they can pay and give an address for delivery. 

“Oh Jesus.” Dan says as he’s lifting on his and Phil’s end. They’re both helping carry it no more than 40 feet but this is the most activity either of them have done since the beginning of December. Phil wishes he could have filmed that but he decides the world doesn’t need to see how much of weaklings they are. 

They get it into the bag which Phil records, petting the top of it. “It’s okay, Piney, you’ll be home soon.” To which Dan leans in over Phil’s shoulder. 

“Phil, people are watching, don’t be weird.” 

Phil laughs but shuts the camera off so they can go pay and give an address for the delivery.

Once out, Dan has the camera, speaking. “So, our tree experience was really fun up until I had to exert energy. They made us carry the bloody tree!” 

Phil’s behind him and leaning down into camera shot. “I almost broke an ankle!” 

“For real! Thank God the delivery guys bring it up stairs for you and set it up, or we’d be at the hospital with at least three broken limbs each by the end of tonight.” 

They pause to get around more people out shopping. “Where to now, Phil?” Dan asks and glances back. Phil ducks down again to get into frame. 

“We go get lunch! And then two more shops, and then Christmas time! Christmas time!” 

“Y-he-he-hesss.” Dan laughs as he speaks out. “Christmas time.” 

\--

They sit down at a little café and get small sandwiches to eat with lattes of Christmas proportions. 

Before they get their food, Dan films a three second thing. “We’re not filming us eating, you weirdos.” 

He shoves it back into his pocket and sits down at the table he chooses and Phil’s over in a second with their food and drinks. 

They eat and talk about where they want to go next. Mostly to the shopping center close to here to buy a few early gifts. The rest are being bought on Amazon and Dan agrees to that, never wanting to go outside again before he has to leave for his parent’s house. 

They also want to stop buy a grocery store. “I want to make cookies while we decorate the tree.” Dan says, his fingers curling around his drink and he takes a slow sip. 

Phil nods with a smile. “I like that idea. Pre-made or make our own?” 

“Pre-made, I’ve done my baking quota for the year. I never want to look at another pastel piece of clothing ever again.” Dan remarks but he’s smiling into his next drink and Phil’s almost sad he didn’t get that look on camera. Dan’s too beautiful for his own good. 

They clean up their table, though and head back out into the cold. With hoods up again, they walk their way down the street a bit further. Before they reach the center, Dan is fumbling for the camera. 

“Dogs!” Phil says into the camera when it’s finally on, smiling big. Dan pans down the street where there are people walking their dogs. 

“Dogs, dogs, dogs.” Dan chants behind the camera. “Ask to pet them when we walk past.” 

“Obviously!” Phil says and they do just that, asking if they can pet the dogs. The three women happily let them and Dan holds in his squeal as he’s bending over to pet the cutest little puppy. 

They all have little booties on to keep their feet off the cold ground and Dan zooms in on their little faces as he strokes across their heads.   
“You’re the sweetest little things, aren’t you? Aren’t you?” Dan says in his baby voice and laughs as the other two dogs come for him, petting all their heads. He stops recording long enough to ask about them, learning they’re all girls from the rescue place and Dan’s heart melts. 

Phil has to pull Dan away from the puppies but he’s back up and walking, camera out. “I just. Had the best experience of my life. Those were the best little girls.” 

“The one little Frenchie had a bow around her neck! It was so cute. I was ready to dognap them.” 

Dan rolls his eyes. “I honestly wouldn’t have stopped you, though. They were the best things. I don’t even care about the tree anymore.” 

“Dan!” Phil says off shoot but Dan’s laughing into the lens. 

\--

They go into shops their mums like, picking out gifts for them that they would rather get in person than from Amazon. Somethings are better in person, they tell themselves. 

Dan points out a few rings he likes and Phil watches, his head resting over his shoulder. He points out the obvious black one, Phil giving a little eyeroll. Though the next one he points out is silver with a black ring around the band. 

“That one is nice. You could get a silver one to match that.” Dan says softly, like he’s not allowed to speak loud or they’ll get thrown out of this side of the store. 

“I could.” Phil says. He tries to remember the first time he considered marrying Dan. Was it 2013? Or maybe even earlier. Maybe before all that stuff. 2010. He would have done anything to keep him at his side. 

Dan’s the first one he’s considered it with. Phil didn’t really care about marriage. Neither did Dan, that’s something they learned early on. 

Yeah, his parents have been married for a long time, and they’re happy and they love each other, but there was a point in his life where he didn’t think he would ever get married with the laws in Britain and around the world. Phil had almost accepted it was just something he never would do. He also never thought he’d meet somebody like Dan. 

Dan exceeds any dream or thought he had about life by %500. He would get married to Dan, probably, but it was a necessity for them. Maybe a civil thing, like. With their parents, and brothers, and Bryony and Wirrow but that’s all. 

Phil never needed a piece of paper to tell him he loved Dan. He doesn’t need one now. But it’s a thought, that simmers in the back of his head in times like these. 

In the festive times, when you’re supposed to be closer than ever, he imagines a winter wedding at some castle up north. Dan wants a silver theme, and he’d get it. Phil was never one for design. He has a dozen little cousins that would beg to be flower girls. His mum would make bouquets and Dan’s grandmum would cook. Or, at least advise the cooking staff. 

They’d invite more family to the actual wedding, but all of their friends to the reception. They’d sing, and dance. Maybe film it. 

A day in the life of getting married to the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and love until the end of time. 

Phil shakes out of it and pays, Dan telling him he’ll pay him back. He shrugs and grabs the baggie he’s given. “She’s technically my mum too. You can tell her it’s from me.” 

“Oh, and not get her a present but you get her one? She’d literally kick me out and say you come to dinner.” Dan snorts. Phil grins. 

Phil breaks out the camera and lets it face him as he turns it on. “Present haul!!! We just went shopping for our mums and… I won’t say what we got in case they watch this, I know my mum does sometimes, but I hope they like it!” Phil smiles big. 

Dan peeks in. “They have to, it’s from their favorite children.” Dan grins while putting his hands underneath his chin. 

“Martyn does watch these videos and he’ll beat me up and steal the present.” Phil pans to Dan who keeps laughing as they’re walking out of the store officially. 

“What’s the last place, Phil?” 

Phil quickly turns the camera around to him. “Sainsbury’s for some cookies and maybe some festive drinks!” 

“Yaaay.” Dan flails his hand around before he starts walking and Phil is following. The sun gets lower in the sky and Phil shows off more of the lights they walk under, some of them the same from earlier but are more clear now as they make their way back towards their neighborhood. 

The busier the streets get, the closer Dan walks next to Phil. Their arms brush while moving and it’s nice when he can nudge his arm against Dan’s and Dan looks up, smiling a little. 

They stop into their local Sainsbury’s and quietly film the parts that they need, not really sure if it’s good to film in here or not. 

Dan’s in the frozen food areas and he pulls out some frozen cookie dough, wiggling them. “Which one?” He asks. “Or we could go for the one you have to mix water into.” 

Phil shakes his head before panning up to the cookies. “Go with one chocolate chip one and one Santa one. You can’t go wrong with a mix.” 

Dan points to Phil with his free finger. “Smart man.” He says before letting the freezer door close behind him. They walk down the aisle, and Phil goes for the Haribo. 

“Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. We need another tub.” From the camera view, all that can be seen is Phil’s extended arm handing over the tub to a disappointed Dan. Phil laughs and continues on. 

“Wine.” Dan says, wiggling his eyebrows. He peeks around the corner to see if any workers are around before he makes it over to the shelf and he picks up some of their mulled wine. 

“Yes?” Dan asks. “Yes!” Phil says behind the camera. “It’ll be like a really cheesy Christmas movie.” 

“Perfect!!” Dan says and starts walking down the aisle. He stops and turns around, pointing to the camera. “Drink responsibly kids.” 

Phil just grins and puts the camera away so they can make it to the register without getting in trouble. 

\--

When they remember to record again, it’s back at home in their kitchen. 

“I’ve got the wine boiling, because obviously, you drink it warm.” Dan says while stirring the pot. “This is fucking Christmas, people.” 

“Dan! You can’t say that.” Phil groaned out. 

“Oh, bleep it.” Dan curled his top lip in a fake annoyed face before his hand came up to wave towards Phil. 

There were a few more moments of banting between them before the doorbell rang and both of their eyes shot up, looking at each other. 

“The tree’s here!” Dan says happily as he’s wiping his hands off and pushing his sleeves up. 

“Piney’s here!” Phil follows and films as Dan goes to the door and opens it, greeting one of the workers. Dan confirms this is the right place before he shuts the door again and turns around towards Phil with thumbs up and a big grin. 

“She’s coming up!” 

They don’t film the workers helping them carry the tree in from the elevator or them clearing space for it. Phil gets water to put in the base because he had absolutely no idea that you needed to water trees and pours it in before the guys get the tree in. 

They get it out of the bag and both Dan and Phil watch it spring open, needles falling out everywhere. Dan’s eyes nearly bug out but he keeps it cool as the tree gets put into its holder. It’s another ten minutes of figuring out if it’s in the right place and secure before they leave, both tipping the delivery men generously for the help. 

As soon as they’re done, the camera is recording. 

“Ahhhh! Look at it!! It’s so beautiful!” Phil’s smiling down the camera while Dan grins up at it. 

“It’s so much bigger than I thought it was? I still love it, though. It’s perfect for this room, too.” 

Dan’s smiling as he walks around it, fixing some of the branches as he goes. Phil turns the camera back to him. 

“Who knew you had to water the tree? I thought it was already dead, but I guess not. I’m not looking forward to watering it when there’s strings of lights coming off of it.” 

Dan snorts in the background. “Phil is not on fire comes early.” 

“That’s the worst joke yet, and I made a pun about trees earlier.” Phil doesn’t need to finish the question and Dan’s already breaking out into laughter and Phil follows, his eyes crinkling as he laughs. 

He stops laughing eventually and puts his hands on his lips, still smiling though and turns to Phil. “Guess what time it is now, Philly?” 

“What!” Phil says. He zooms in on Dan’s face. 

“Decoration time!” Dan says in a sing song voice and Phil ruins it with a deep and sensual “Oh yeeeah.” 

Dan’s face falls while Phil still laughs but they stop it there, going for the decorations. They bring everything out before heading back into the kitchen to put the cookies on. Dan stirs the wine a bit more and Phil says he’s going to set up the other camera so they can do a time lapse. 

Dan, with his phone, starts filming himself. “We got the wine, we got the cookies in the oven…” He pans down to the lit up oven with cookies slowly rising. “And we got the tree. Let’s get frickin’ Christmas’d out of our minds.” 

Dan brings them each a hefty glass of wine, taking small sips while they plan out decorations. 

Moving into their new place, they had a bit more area to cover so they bought more decorations for the window sills and the railing for their steps. They also bought cute little ceramics of a penguin and a bear, that matched their favorite ornaments, and set them up in the kitchen with some lights going around the window in there. 

They start first with everything but the tree, Dan filming himself putting up some of the tinsel over the drapes they have always closed in their living room. Phil was working on the other side, wrapping the cute little Santa banner down the handle of the staircase. 

Phil, the weirdo, drank most of his wine quickly. He was a freak who had no sense of hot or cold, Dan thought. 

“You’re a freak with no sense of hot and cold. How can you drink that so fast?” He asked. “Mine’s still mostly full, you weirdo.” 

Phil smirked. “We’re not all wussies like you, Dan.” He said before disappearing into the kitchen again. 

“Alright!” Dan said loudly, making sure Phil heard it. While he was in there, he got the rest of the cookies out of the oven because Dan could smell them and he smiled bright, so ready for them. 

“Bring them in and set them on the table and we can start the time lapse!” Dan called out and Phil called back a okay before he finished up what he was doing. 

By the time Phil came back in, his face was turning a slight red tint. Dan grinned and bit his lip before going for a cookie, eating one of the cooler ones. He groaned out and let his head fall back to lull against his shoulders. 

“These are the best. Oh my gooodd.” He said while letting himself fall back into the couch. Phil was reaching next, going for both of them and eating them contently. 

“Oh my god. These are heavenly. Can we get like, a Sainsbury spon or something?” Phil asks while laughing to himself. Dan laughed too and drank from his cup of very warm wine, Phil following him. 

They sat and had a few more cookies before it was time to stand up and go grab the rest of the ornaments from the closet. 

When Dan came back, Phil was standing near the tree, looking up at it. Dan quickly pressed record on the tripod they had set up in the back of the living room to catch all their tree decorating. 

“Are we ready?” Dan asks, and Phil nods. Dan’s opening up the first box and sets it up on the couch before Phil’s speaking. 

“I have-“ hiccup “-a vision.” Phil says before his eyes widen a little towards the camera. He grabs his chest before laughing out. “Oh my gosh.” 

“Kids, don’t drink.” Dan says down the camera. “Or you turn into a big red tomato and can’t speak correctly.” 

“Hey!” Phil said, his hands coming up to touch his face. “Oh.. yeah, I’m definitely feeling a bit warm.” 

“This is not going to end well.” Dan glances back to the camera again. “Wish us luck!” 

They begin grabbing random bulbs from the containers Dan brought out and start hanging them up, placing them randomly at first but the more they gather on the tree, the more it’s about filling in gaps and empty tree space so it doesn’t look the worst. 

It takes them about an hour to finish it completely, Dan smiling happily as he looks all over it. He’s feeling a bit warm, the wine and spices warming from his core up so his face is also a bit red. 

They look at the tree and are so excited about the real tree aspect and the decorations, they forget something until they turn off the lights to show off the tree and. 

“Oh my fucking god.” Dan says. 

“We forgot the lights!” Phil says a bit loudly, laughing as the camera focuses in on nothing. 

“We actually forgot to put lights on. Jesus Christ, Phil, you get me drunk and now we forget to put the lights on.” Dan says before flicking the ceiling light back on. 

“I didn’t get you drunk.” And Phil is still laughing, his head falling back against his shoulders as he nearly falls into the seat he sits down in. 

The more Phil laughs, the more Dan wants to now, smirking down he camera. “Look how much help he is. Phil, get up, you’re being a bad influence.” 

It takes a few tries, but Phil’s up and he stumbles a little but he’s reaching for the lights Dan grabs out of the box. 

“Now carefully, string the lights around.” Dan says and the manage pretty well with only a few bulbs tumbling to their death. Phil’s still giggling quietly to himself, his tongue sticking out of his teeth. 

Dan bends to pick them up and he nearly falls over when Phil reaches to slap across his bum. Dan gasps but stands back up, his jaw dropping a little. “Excuse me!” He calls out but he’s already bluffing, his eyes wrinkling as he’s laughing. 

Phil shrugs. “Wasn’t me!” 

Phil’s known to have a streak of confidence while a bit tipsy but is also a complete and absolute clutz when he’s tipsy, even more than normally. Still, it doesn’t stop him from standing up and taking a hold of Dan’s arms once he’s done with hanging the bulbs back up. 

“Oof, what” Dan says but Phil moves them, playfully dancing around while the camera records all of it behind them. Dan’s not nearly where Phil is but the wine makes him feel easier and rather than taking a serious step back to finish the video first, Dan’s leaning into it and laughing as Phil tries to waltz with him, failing miserably because 1. They have exactly 5 feet to dance in between the table and the tree and 2. Neither of them know how to dance. 

Phil stills enjoys it, though, and they’re both laughing with warm faces and jelly legs and excitement coursing through their bloodstreams. Dan’s eyes catch Phil’s and he’s never seen them brighter than at Christmas time. All the joy in Phil’s life comes rushing back to him and you can see it in the way his eyes almost shift colors. 

“Kiss me.” Dan says softly and Phil doesn’t hesitate, their lips closing in together a bit too roughly but it turns soft in another moment, Phil lightening up to let his lips move on Dan’s. They stay like that, kissing sweetly in front of the lit tree. 

Dan’s hands anchor him against Phil, gripping on the back of his sweater while Phil hugs him back, arms slipping so Phil can cup at the sides of Dan’s head, thumbs stroking his temples. They lick each others lips, tasting sugar and the wine and just pure sweetness and fun. It’s rushing by so quickly, but time goes slow when Dan can be with Phil. Their kiss lasts seconds but Dan could get lost in them for hours in his mind. 

It takes the breath out of them and they both pull away with slightly red lips and breaths gasping a little. Dan’s the first one to smile, and Phil returns it, their heads resting together for a moment while they just look at each other. 

“Let’s finish the video, and there will be plenty more where that came from.” Dan says and Phil nods immediately, his hands retracting from Dan’s to ruffle his hair. 

“Let’s go, right now.” Dan can only laugh. He nods and they get back into their positions on the other side of the tree. 

Clearing their throats and fixing hair, they hold up their hands. “Tadaaah!” They say in time. 

“She’s done… again. We got the lights on with some minor incidents, but Piney is complete!” Dan says happily and Phil cheers, throwing up some extra tinsel they had. 

They scramble once they wait for a few seconds and go to the camera, flicking it off as well as most of the lights so they can run back to the bedroom, giddy and giggling to themselves. 

They promise themselves they’ll do the end screen tomorrow night. 

Phil goes out to get the camera, though, a couple hours later once they’ve had their fun and cooled off. Dan’s asleep next to him, quietly snoring and curled up in most of their blankets. Phil can get his legs in underneath some of them and it’s enough so he can set his laptop on his lap and pop the SD card out of the camera and into his laptop. 

He randomly scrubs through the video when he gets it open in Adobe, cutting out little random pieces he sees that aren’t anything. He stops, though. He stops where he can see them both dancing in the middle of the living room, grins on their red faces. 

Phil can’t see the front of himself but he can see Dan clear as day with the way the camera was positioned and he looks gorgeous. He’s radiating happiness under the lights of the tree. He’s brighter than the tree. Maybe even the sun. 

And his face goes warm again, this time from the way Dan looks when he kisses him. He can’t hear it, at least not without his head phones, when Dan says to kiss him, but he can still hear it in his head. The way he felt, the way he tasted. It was perfect, it was fun, it was everything he’s wanted. 

Their new Christmas traditions, memories, and beginnings. They’re all here now. This is where it starts. 

Phil has a video of mostly everything he’s done in his life since 2007. Some are better than others. Some mean more than others. 

He cuts the slice of video and drags it to his desktop. There, he double clicks again on the icon and watches it another time, smiling into the bright screen. 

He edits, renames, “Sunshine on Christmas” and drags it to the Dan folder. He leaves everything else and closes his laptop and bends to set it down on the floor next to him before turning and scooting himself down onto the bed next to Dan where he snakes one arm around him. Dan instantly curls into it, sighing out in his sleep. 

A day in the life for them but a lifetime of memories for him.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on twitter @domniall


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